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David Panama Fair

This is the week of the David International Fair. It started 11 March and it will end 20 March. If you miss County Fairs you should not miss this event. The David Feria is much larger than the fair in Boquete Panama. It includes many typical County Fair things, rides for the children, greasy food, livestock, booths of deals you cannot afford to miss and bars, lots of bars.

In addition, tomorrow, is the day of the Cabalgata, the horse parade in David. The Day David goes to the horses. If you plan to go to David with a purpose tomorrow, is a bad day to go. If you want to see thousands of horses snarl traffic, drink rum, oops thats the riders, then it’s a great day to go. I love the Cabagata and although I will not be riding this year I will find a perch to watch the horses parade by.

Last year the thenPresident of Panama lead the parade, this year the Minister of Agriculture is the banner carrier. It doesn’t really matter since the entire event is for the riders, who start with gratuitous rum and end buying more rum. For the horses it is a snarl of thousands of horses doing the grand circuit of David. It is a bad day to be a taxi driver.

This event starts sometime after 1 pm, time uncertain. The parade starts near the Interamerican on the street with Super 99 and Mcdonalds and if function follows tradition there will be grandstands and mobs of people on the streets to enjoy the change of pace and the last holiday in David until November.

Yes, schools are closed for cabalgata, just like they are in Tucson Arizona for rodeo. In the past the Rodeo and the rodeo parade were a big thing in Tucson. I remember riding in a horse drawn float sponsored by a bar. We drank beer for the entire route, after that rather rowdy experience, they banned drinking in the parade, things change, David is still a cow town just like Tucson was in its past. Don’t miss the present time in David, because history suggests this tradition might not last forever.

Wow! If all goes as planned I’ll be driving a rental car through Boquete on the way to the Villa Marita around 3 p.m. on Sunday. All those drunk cowboys on horse-back ought to be real wound up by that time. This might turn out to be one of those Travel Memories. Party ON.